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Hi,

I have launched a new site for technology especially computer help and support. The site aims at creating a knowledge bank for people who need help in computers from topics ranging from Beginner level to an Advanced Level. We have right now incorporated a various topics when it comes to computers including programmimg, operating systems, databases and more.

So, do sign up, be an active member and help and get helped in the process.

The URL of the site is at http://hackersrepublic.com

Tags: IT News, General, Uncategorized, Security, SEO, open source software by admin
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I was shell shocked when the news came in on CNN that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion and i was like thats nothing new especially when it  comes to internet companies.  Its been ever since competition buying out competition but this is special because this is the BIG DEAL.

If this deal goes through then i wonder what will happen to Yahoo! open source commitment and that has really got me worried because I am right now working on a major project that makes use of the Yahoo user interface library which thankfully is open source as well as we are planning to use several of Yahoo!’s API.

So, hopefully even if this deal goes through i dont think yahoo should compromise on its principles as well as its commitment to open source software.

So, here is me,  hoping the best for both the companies as well as more importantly to technology!

Cheers!

Tags: IT News, open source software by admin
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PHP Frameworks:

PHP is finally getting the attention that i deserves, yes I have always believed that PHP is one of those neglected languages, neglected because they are used in abundance but there isn’t enough programs or as we call them frameworks to work on PHP. But that was until the release of PHP 5. After the release of PHP, there is a range of Frameworks available.

Today we review and understand closely the various frameworks available for PHP. Some of the most popular frameworks for PHP are:

1. The Zend Framework.
2. The Prado Framework.
3. CakePHP Framework.
4. Symphony Framework.

These frameworks are ofcourse the most popular ones and there are more than 40 frameworks for PHP and it is very difficult to know which framework suits you the best and will be the most productive for your web development and enterprise goals.
Ofcourse all these frameworks are free and provide a host of services to satisfy almost all of the web development needs of a web designer or a website owner. Some of the most common features of all these PHP Framework are as follows:

• PHP 5: Thats obvious! All the frameworks support both PHP 5 version of the PHP.Only “The Prado Framework” support the PHP 4.x version of the PHP as well as the PHP 5 version of the PHP.
• Multiple DBs: All the above mentioned frameworks support multiple databases to be used without making any setup and configuration changes.
• Validation: All the four frameworks have an inbult validation and a filtering component which can be used.
• MVC: All the four frameworks have the MVC that is the Model View Controller setup.

So, these are the few components and controllers that are common in most of the PHP based frameworks and therefore one should look out for these components when downloading or using a PHP framework.

Now let us see a brief introduction about each of these PHP based frameworks and their salient features:

• Zend Framework:Zend Framework is a component based framework with components for almost all of the programming needs of a PHP programmer or PHP developer.

Some of the components in the Zend Framework are:

1. zend_acl
2. zend_auth
3. zend_cache
4. zend_config
5. zend_consolegetop and many more.

• Prado Framework: The Prado framework provides the following benefits for web application developers.

1. reusablility
2. Ease of use
3. Robustness
4. Performance
5. Team Integration

• CakePHP:

Some of the important features of CakePHP are as follows:

1. Model, View, Controller Architecture
2. View Helpers for AJAX, Javascript, HTML Forms and more
3. Built-in Validation
4. Application Scaffolding
5. Application and CRUD code generation via Bake
6. Access Control Lists
7. Data Sanitization
8. Security, Session, and Request Handling Components
9. Flexible View Caching

Like all other frameworks cakePHP is also component based framework.

• The Symphony Framework:

Some of the features of the symphony framework are as follows:

1. simple templating and helpers
2. cache management
3. smart URLs
4. scaffolding
5. multilingualism and I18N support
6. object model and MVC separation
7. Ajax support
8. enterprise ready

Thus these are the best options available for frameworks relating to PHP and one should review all these features of all these frameworks against his needs and choose the appropriate framework to work on!

Any suggestions and comments as always are welcome.

Tags: Software Reviews, open source software, by admin
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• XSS in phpinfo() (MOPB-8 by Stefan Esser)

While majority of the issues outlined above are local, in some circumstances given specific code paths they can be triggered externally. Therefor, we strongly recommend that if you use code utilizing the functions and extensions identified as having had vulnerabilities in them, you consider upgrading your PHP.

For users upgrading to PHP 5.2 from PHP 5.0 and PHP 5.1, an upgrade guide is available here, detailing the changes between those releases and PHP 5.2.2.

Update: May 4th; The PHP 4.4.7 Windows build was updated due to the faulty Apache2 module shipped with the original

Tags: open source software by admin
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Security Enhancements and Fixes in PHP 5.2.2 only

• Fixed a header injection via Subject and To parameters to the mail() function (MOPB-34 by Stefan Esser)
• Fixed wrong length calculation in unserialize S type (MOPB-29 by Stefan Esser)
• Fixed substr_compare and substr_count information leak (MOPB-14 by Stefan Esser) (Stas, Ilia)
• Fixed a remotely trigger-able buffer overflow inside make_http_soap_request(). (by Ilia Alshanetsky)
• Fixed a buffer overflow inside user_filter_factory_create(). (by Ilia Alshanetsky)

Tags: open source software by admin
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The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.2 and availability of PHP 4.4.7. These releases are major stability and security enhancements of the 5.x and 4.4.x branches, and all users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to it as soon as possible. Further details about the PHP 5.2.2 release can be found in the release announcement for 5.2.2, the full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog for PHP 5. Details about the PHP 4.4.7 release can be found in the release announcement for 4.4.7, the full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog for PHP 4.

Tags: open source software by admin
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Azureus is a Java-based BitTorrent client, with support for I2P and Tor

The program’s logo is the Blue Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates azureus), shown on the Azureus webpage, as well as within the program’s start-up splash screen, from which the project took its name. The name was given to the project by co-creator Tyler Pitchford, who uses the Latin names of Poison Dart Frogs as codenames for his development projects.

Azureus was first released in June 2003 at Sourceforge.net, mostly to experiment with the Standard Widget Toolkit from Eclipse. It is now one of the most popular BitTorrent clients.^[1] Released under the GNU General Public License, Azureus is free software.

Features:

Azureus allows users to specify maximum upload and download speeds and is configurable like the many other clients. Azureus also allows users to open some files that have been completed before the entire torrent from within the program. Additionally, Azureus can serve as its own tracker, allowing users to share their own files with others without uploading it to any site. Azureus supports Message stream encryption, an anti-throttling method. Peer exchange and the magnet: URI scheme are supported. Azureus’s functionality can be expanded via various plugins, one of the more popular being Country Locator.^[3] An integration with the Nodezilla Grid Network is implemented as a plugin, enabling the anonymous storage, sharing and publication of torrent files. Azureus also features multiple ways of viewing a file, such as Swarm (Shown Here), Peers, and Pieces.

DHT:

Azureus version 2.3.0.0 introduced the Distributed Database function (a form of DHT, namely Kademlia), which is a decentralization of the BitTorrent protocol, making it more independent from trackers. For users of Azureus 2.3.0.0 or newer, this allows a user to download a file from peers even when the original tracker is unavailable or has been shutdown. The downside to this is that private tracker operators, with membership requirements, are required to explicitly alter their torrent files so that the Azureus client knows not to share peer information about that swarm. Some critics also say that this is simply “reinventing the wheel,” referring to earlier peer-to-peer protocols and programs the weaknesses of which BitTorrent was praised for overcoming. Others see it as an evolution of the BitTorrent protocols to circumvent enforcement actions of the entertainment industry. Azureus uses its own form of DHT incompatible with the official BitTorrent client offered by BitTorrent, Inc. All of the other clients, including BitComet and µTorrent, support the official DHT

Tags: open source software by admin
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PHP (PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor) is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP is used mainly in server-side scripting, The main implementation is produced by “The PHP Group” and released under the PHP License. It is considered to be free software by the Free Software Foundation^[2]. This implementation serves to define a de facto standard for PHP, as there is no formal specification.

Tags: open source software, by admin
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Licensing:

MySQL AB makes MySQL Server available as free software under the GNU General Public License(GPL), but they also offer the MySQL Enterprise subscription offering for business users and dual-license it under traditional proprietarylicensing arrangements for cases where the intended use is incompatible with the GPL.

Both the MySQL server software itself and the client libraries are distributed under a dual-licensing format. Users may choose the GNU General Public License^[9], which MySQL has extended with a FLOSS License Exception. It allows Software licensed under other OSI-compliant Open Source licenses, which are not compatible to the GPL, to link against the MySQL client libraries.^[10]

Customers that do not wish to be bound to the terms of the GPL may choose to purchase a proprietary license.^[11]

Like many open-source programs, the name “MySQL” is trademarked and may only be used with the trademark holder’s permission.

Some users have independently continued to develop earlier versions of the client libraries, which was distributed under the less-restrictive Lesser General Public License.^[12]

Tags: open source software by admin
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MySQL is a multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system (DBMS) which has, according to MySQL AB, more than 10 million installations.

MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, which holds the copyright to most of the codebase. This is similar to the JBoss model and how the Free Software Foundation handles copyright in its projects, and dissimilar to how the Apache project does it, where the software is developed by a public community and the copyright to the codebase is owned by its individual authors.

The company develops and maintains the system, selling support and service contracts, as well as proprietary-licensed copies of MySQL, and employing people all over the world who collaborate via the Internet. MySQL AB was founded by David Axmark, Allan Larsson, and Michael “Monty” Widenius. The CEO is MÃ¥rten Mickos.

The MySQL company also sells another DBMS, MaxDB, which is from an unrelated codebase.

Programming Languages:

Libraries for accessing MySQL databases are available in all major programming languages with language-specific APIs. In addition, an ODBC interface called MyODBC allows additional programming languages that support the ODBC interface to communicate with a MySQL database, such as ASP or Coldfusion. The MySQL server and official libraries are mostly implemented in ANSI C.

Tags: open source software, by admin
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